A miscellany like Grandma’s attic in Taunton, MA or Mission Street's Thrift Town in San Francisco or a Council, ID yard sale in cloudy mid April or a celestial roadmap no one folded—you take your pick.

and my loversmaking lovewill be coming togetherand my childrenfrosting cookiesdo not knowthey have not taken the fruitthey do not knowthe soundless sighsthe nails he digs into her skinrendering red across her backthe spasm shaking of the earththe labour pains of the worldthe tight contractions of her around him

they do not knowall this will be washed awaylong before they themselvesknow lovers

but pray the end does not comeon the Sabbath.that day,i will be baking

Friday, February 7, 2014

Hey,
how about this internet? There sure are lots of maddening things about
it, right? But you know one thing I will always appreciate about the
‘net is the way it enables creative folk to network & support
each other. I’d like to think that Robert Frost’s Banjo, in its
own small way, has contributed to this—& so I’m really excited
to let you all know about a project being developed by some close
friends of mine!

So let me introduce Jen Ralston, my good pal
& a creative dynamo—she has worked in Hollywood for the past 20
years as a sound editor on such successful shows as Treme & The Wire; she won a 2009 Emmy in “Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special” for her work on Generation Kill,
& also won a Golden Reel Award for her sound editing on the
same miniseries. In addition to her noteworthy & extensive
television work, Jen has worked on a number of films, including such
notables as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon & O Brother, Where Art Thou? Jen Ralston is also an accomplished writer & contributed the teleplay for the 2012 Treme episode “I Thought I Heard Buddy Bolden Say.” You can find her full resume here at IMDB.

In conjunction with producer Leslie Valentino—whose list of credits include Sin City & two of the Pirates of the Caribbean
films—& a host of talented folks (including a few musicians who
have appeared on this blog), Jen Ralston is putting together a new
webseries called BFF the series. Now that we’re all acquainted, let’s have Jen tell us about the background to this series in her own words:

When
widower Mike Brady married the (mysteriously single) Carol and
redefined what family looked like for a generation of TV viewers, I was
an only child being raised by a single parent in rural Pennsylvania. And
while Ellen was coming out of the closet on her sitcom, I was proudly
watching in a room full of already-out film school friends in New York
City.

As
invaluable as these examples of otherness were for me and many others, I
have yet to see characters on television that accurately reflect the
full range of diversity I experience in my everyday life. Sixteen years
after Ellen’s famous “Puppy Episode,” there are many more gay
protagonists, but most are shallow, sassy stereotypes. And transpeople
are rarely represented as anything other than victims of violence or
punchlines to tasteless jokes.

I
have had to learn to empathize with, root for, and even love all kinds
of characters who, on the surface, bore very little resemblance to me.
In my experience, we all have more in common than not. Anyone can be a
victim or a punchline. Or beautiful. Or even heroic. By telling stories
that remind audiences of that, I hope to help fill this void.

Intrigued? I know I am, & I hope you are too. On the project’s Indiegogo page (use the link here or at the top of the blog’s sidebar) Jen goes on to underline that the success of BFF the series
will be one way of demonstrating to the powers that be how many viewers
want real stories about real people—characters that reflect the people
who populate our everyday lives, not the stereotypes television has so
often wheeled out a rotating collection of stock characters. It’s a
great thing for the LGBT community & its allies; it's a great
thing for tolerance & inclusion in a culture desperately in need of same. Just a
while back I blogged a photo of Pete Seeger’s banjo with the motto “This
machine surrounds hate & forces it to surrender”—I believe BFFthe series has the potential to be the same kind of machine! Here's how Jen encapsulates the storyline:

John
and Alex just moved to SF from Pittsburgh. He's in publishing and she's
in tech. When the series starts, they're engaged to be married but very
quickly those plans change. Alex realizes she is gay. And John needs to
move out and move on.

Alex
soon discovers that there is more to being gay than coming out of the
closet. Her "girl meets girl" quest is compounded by the maze of
identity politics that is the SF queer community. Meanwhile, John ends
up in an apartment share in the Mission with Hunter (a transman) and
Lindsay (his lesbian-identified girlfriend).

As
(straight) John and (straight-laced) Alex find equilibrium in their
progressive new home, the humor in the show will come from the situations the characters find themselves in, rather than at the expense of the characters differences.

&
hey, it’s the internet that makes this possible, not just in terms of
facilitating the fund raising, but also in distributing the finished
content—which will be free by the way—yay internet!
But in reality it's the internet in conjunction with the amazing
creativity of people like Jen Ralston, Leslie Valentino & their
many friends, including the friends, virtual & otherwise, who
lend a hand in any way they can to get this project off the ground! I
feel privileged to be counted as one of them, & I encourage you
to support this project in any way you can too. Spreading the word
helps—you can “like” the project on Facebook, follow on Twitter @SomeOtherJen,
blog about it, tweet about it, or just generally spread the word.
& of course, if you’d like to join me in making a donation, I
know that will be really appreciated too!

CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE

All original text, music & pictures are licensed under a Creative Commons license. Please feel free to use them (not for profit) as long as you acknowledge the source & make them available under similar "share-alike" terms. This includes all works by John Hayes, Eberle Umbach (including original works by The Alice in Wonder Band, Five & Dime Jazz & The Bijou Orchestrette), Audrey Bilger, Brittany Newmark, L.E. Leone, Barbie Dockstader Angell, Nancy Krygowski, Carmen Leone, Mairi Graham-Shaw, AK Barkley, John Hayes, Sr., Sheila Graham-Smith & any other original work as may appear here down the line (we're hoping!)